FB: Liberty League

[UfanBill]

Not sure if this is official as it's from an X post but Union has announced their 2026 football schedule. They will be fulfilling the home and home commitments started last year so non conference opponents have not changed. Susquehanna will be visiting on September 5th, Cortland on the 12th and the Garnet are at Morrisville on Sept. 19th...Liberty League play begins on Sept 26th hosting Buffalo St. Trips to St. Lawrence and Hobart are followed by an Oct.17th bye week. Ithaca visits Schenectady on Oct. 24th then a road trip to play Hilbert on Halloween. The last home game is Rochester on Nov 7th and the Shoes will be contested at RPI on November 14th.

[Bartman]

Not sure if this is official as it's from an X post but Union has announced their 2026 football schedule. They will be fulfilling the home and home commitments started last year so non conference opponents have not changed. Susquehanna will be visiting on September 5th, Cortland on the 12th and the Garnet are at Morrisville on Sept. 19th...Liberty League play begins on Sept 26th hosting Buffalo St. Trips to St. Lawrence and Hobart are followed by an Oct.17th bye week. Ithaca visits Schenectady on Oct. 24th then a road trip to play Hilbert on Halloween. The last home game is Rochester on Nov 7th and the Shoes will be contested at RPI on November 14th.

Same for Hobart starting with Alfred, Brockport and Utica followed by the LL schedule starting with RPI in Troy. Only a little over six months 

[tony/troy]

Not sure if this is official as it's from an X post but Union has announced their 2026 football schedule. They will be fulfilling the home and home commitments started last year so non conference opponents have not changed. Susquehanna will be visiting on September 5th, Cortland on the 12th and the Garnet are at Morrisville on Sept. 19th...Liberty League play begins on Sept 26th hosting Buffalo St. Trips to St. Lawrence and Hobart are followed by an Oct.17th bye week. Ithaca visits Schenectady on Oct. 24th then a road trip to play Hilbert on Halloween. The last home game is Rochester on Nov 7th and the Shoes will be contested at RPI on November 14th.

Same for Hobart starting with Alfred, Brockport and Utica followed by the LL schedule starting with RPI in Troy. Only a little over six months 

So it looks like we now know two 2026 Liberty League football schedules. Those two have a common thread. Except for home and away being switched from 2025 to 2026, eight of the ten games are in the exact same order as last year. The only two that differ in order from last year are the first two Liberty League games (9/26 & 10/3). While the opponents are the same, the order is reversed in 2026.

Guess we will need to see at least a couple more schedules to see if the above applies to all eight Liberty League teams or just some of them.

[IC798891]

I confess I have a hard time getting too fussed about PPV for D3... I don't see how it's any different than charging for a stadium ticket, which everyone has been doing for years without (much) complaining.

My main issue with it is from the perspective of a college.

We're in an age where we're all fighting for every high school student's attention, every alumnus/alumna still feeling connected enough to the college to make a donation, every parent living hundreds of miles away from their child and already writing a whole bunch of checks.

Putting athletics' content behind a paywall reduces points of contact between all those constituent groups and the college. Your goal should be the exact opposite. You want more points of contact, more exposure.

And that exposure isn't limited to the athletic teams. You're highlighting your campus facilities, your staff, the social life component of your college, heck even the quality of the student broadcasting opportunities.

All that stuff has value. The problem of course, is the difficulty in quantifying that value.

For budget strapped colleges, $30,000 a year, as insignificant as it is to any institution's bottom line, is in fact quantifiable. So they take the money and run.

From a completely anecdotal standpoint, they day Ithaca College goes to Flo is the day I stop contributing to their Giving Day campaign. Not out of some principled stand or anything. But I have a limited amount I can spend "on" IC, and the $108 Flo subscription comes from that pile, regardless of the fact that IC doesn't actually get that money.

[Jonny Utah]

I confess I have a hard time getting too fussed about PPV for D3... I don't see how it's any different than charging for a stadium ticket, which everyone has been doing for years without (much) complaining.

My main issue with it is from the perspective of a college.

We're in an age where we're all fighting for every high school student's attention, every alumnus/alumna still feeling connected enough to the college to make a donation, every parent living hundreds of miles away from their child and already writing a whole bunch of checks.

Putting athletics' content behind a paywall reduces points of contact between all those constituent groups and the college. Your goal should be the exact opposite. You want more points of contact, more exposure.

And that exposure isn't limited to the athletic teams. You're highlighting your campus facilities, your staff, the social life component of your college, heck even the quality of the student broadcasting opportunities.

All that stuff has value. The problem of course, is the difficulty in quantifying that value.

For budget strapped colleges, $30,000 a year, as insignificant as it is to any institution's bottom line, is in fact quantifiable. So they take the money and run.

From a completely anecdotal standpoint, they day Ithaca College goes to Flo is the day I stop contributing to their Giving Day campaign. Not out of some principled stand or anything. But I have a limited amount I can spend "on" IC, and the $108 Flo subscription comes from that pile, regardless of the fact that IC doesn't actually get that money.

Agree with this, and brings me back to my original question.

Local cable stations can produce high school football games and show them on the internet for "free" here in Massachusetts.  I assume this is the same across the country.  I get that local cable stations are funded and it costs something to do this.  Ithaca College also has a TV station with similar capabilities. 

1.  Are colleges going to FloSports and giving them a cut just to help fund the programming costs?
2.  Couldn't IC (if they wanted to) just cut out the middleman (FloSports) and do it themselves?

But yea, this is one of those things that simply puts a sour taste in your mouth if you have to pay tuition or loans and THEN have to pay more to watch these games.  If Ithaca asked for $100 donations to keep free broadcasting going I might even through in $100. 

Side note, anytime I hear one of my HS players say they are interested in Rochester, I tell them RPI and Union are much closer and are better schools for whatever they are looking for, especially if it is in Engineering or Business!

[Jonny Utah]

I confess I have a hard time getting too fussed about PPV for D3... I don't see how it's any different than charging for a stadium ticket, which everyone has been doing for years without (much) complaining.

My main issue with it is from the perspective of a college.

We're in an age where we're all fighting for every high school student's attention, every alumnus/alumna still feeling connected enough to the college to make a donation, every parent living hundreds of miles away from their child and already writing a whole bunch of checks.

Putting athletics' content behind a paywall reduces points of contact between all those constituent groups and the college. Your goal should be the exact opposite. You want more points of contact, more exposure.

And that exposure isn't limited to the athletic teams. You're highlighting your campus facilities, your staff, the social life component of your college, heck even the quality of the student broadcasting opportunities.

All that stuff has value. The problem of course, is the difficulty in quantifying that value.

For budget strapped colleges, $30,000 a year, as insignificant as it is to any institution's bottom line, is in fact quantifiable. So they take the money and run.

From a completely anecdotal standpoint, they day Ithaca College goes to Flo is the day I stop contributing to their Giving Day campaign. Not out of some principled stand or anything. But I have a limited amount I can spend "on" IC, and the $108 Flo subscription comes from that pile, regardless of the fact that IC doesn't actually get that money.

Agree with this, and brings me back to my original question.

Local cable stations can produce high school football games and show them on the internet for "free" here in Massachusetts.  I assume this is the same across the country.  I get that local cable stations are funded and it costs something to do this.  Ithaca College also has a TV station with similar capabilities. 

1.  Are colleges going to FloSports and giving them a cut just to help fund the programming costs?
2.  Couldn't IC (if they wanted to) just cut out the middleman (FloSports) and do it themselves?

But yea, this is one of those things that simply puts a sour taste in your mouth if you have to pay tuition or loans and THEN have to pay more to watch these games.  If Ithaca asked for $100 donations to keep free broadcasting going I might even through in $100. 

Side note, anytime I hear one of my HS players say they are interested in Rochester, I tell them RPI and Union are much closer and are better schools for whatever they are looking for, especially if it is in Engineering or Business!

Ok so I haven't been paying attention but this has been a hot topic the past 3 years I guess.  Some of my questions have been answered or are questions everyone has. 

https://www.d3boards.com/index.php?topic=9545.495